Learning to play a musical instrument, such as a flute, requires practice playing the instrument. Unfortunately, some people may be disturbed by the sound of a person playing an instrument. As a result, a person playing an instrument may be asked to stop by persons disturbed by the sound of the instrument, or may be apprehensive about playing the instrument for fear of disturbing others. Accordingly, it would be advantageous to provide a means for temporarily muting the sound of an instrument, such as a flute, so that a person may practice playing an instrument without disturbing others, and preserve the ability to play the instrument without muting its sound after the person is done practicing. The inventor found that certain means of muting a wind instrument altered the pitch of the sound produced by the instrument. For example, modifying the size of the blowhole of a wind instrument was found to change the pitch of the sound produced.